Best sports coach -- college (2000)

Mike Dunlap Metro State basketball

After losing the NCAA Division II basketball final to Kentucky Wesleyan in 1999, Dunlap's 33-4 Roadrunners dominated the rematch March 25 in Louisville, Kentucky, 97-79, to win their first national title. Stocked with Coloradans and five players recruited in Australia, the Runners gave local hoops fans the touch of March Madness that the state's major college teams regularly fail to provide. In the wake of the big win, Dunlap turned down a coaching offer from California's Loyola Marymount University and signed a new five-year contract at Metro. Good for him, and for the school's 17,100 hard-working students.